Pulling Lux"s jacket more tightly around her, Lily started walking forward. Whether things wanted to kill her or not, it wouldn"t do her any good to wait around. She had no intention of living in this cursed place forever, and she had to get somewhere she could rest and eat.
When she had tried running from the trees, her shoes had slipped off. She considered going back to look for them, but all the trees looked the same. She couldn"t tell where she"d lost them, or where the road was, or even if she"d been here before. Her only plan was to keep moving until she couldn"t move anymore.
The ground squished underneath her bare feet, and sometimes, she swore she felt it move. A shiver ran down her spine, and she walked faster. She had been a stupid, careless girl for going off with Lux. The temperatures continued to drop, her feet were covered in muck, and she just wanted to go home.
Her father would notice she was gone and start worrying soon. Her step-mother probably wouldn"t care at all, but Lily couldn"t bear to worry her father. She had to get back to the palace as soon as she could figure out where she was.
But as soon as she thought it, an icy chill stopped her heart. She had promised Lux she would never go back home, and she couldn"t renege on the vow. More than that, he"d made her promise for a reason. Regardless of everything to the contrary, she still trusted him.
Once she decided to listen to him, to listen to her heart, the chill faded, and she started walking again. She let her mind wander back to the brief but intense kiss she"d shared with Lux, since it seemed to be the only thing that warmed her, instead of paying attention to the ground in front of her.
Her feet slipped in something wet, and Lily stumbled forward. She put her hands out in front of her to break the fall, and the palm of her hand caught on a gnarly root that poked out of the ground. Her knees landed softly in the mud, but the root sliced open her palm. She winced, holding it up in the moonlight to see a thin line of blood sliding down her skin.
Almost instantly, Lily heard the flurry of things moving about. She got to her feet hurriedly, once again sensing the motion of things that she couldn"t quite see. She held her hand up, pressing the jacket against her cut to stop the bleeding, and tried to keep her eyes on the shadows that moved around her.
At least the trees weren"t reaching out for her again. They remained stoic, watching her spin around.
"I know you"re out there!" Lily shouted as if it were some kind of threat.
The sound of wings flapping echoed off the trees around her. She looked back to see a dark creature descending toward her. At first, it appeared to be a simple crow, but the closer it got to her, the more she saw how little it resembled any bird she"d seen before.
It had a long bony beak filled with tiny, jagged teeth. At the bend in its wings were leathery hands with long, sharp claws. A wriggling, serpentine tail whipped the air, and dark, mangy fur covered its body in place of feathers.
Lily ran as the horrible beast flew at her, its voice sounding like a cross between a caw and a growl. It got close enough to beat its horrible leather wings at her, so she covered her head with her arms. Its claws sc.r.a.ped at the back of her jacket, and like the trees, as soon as the beast touched it, it fell back.
Unlike the trees, it didn"t completely give up its pursuit. It merely faltered for a moment.
She tripped again, and Lily couldn"t help but believe the trees had done it on purpose this time, raising their roots so she would fall to the ground. The creature landed on the ground behind her, giving its wings one final flap for good measure, and she turned to face her attacker.
It crouched on the ground, looking as if it meant to pounce on her, and it looked even more monstrous close up. A long, narrow tongue flicked out of its mouth, meaning to taste her, but she pulled her feet back just in time.
"I"m not afraid of you!" Lily lied. Her hand scrounged behind her as she scooted her b.u.t.t backwards on the ground. Her fingers finally found a heavy stick on the ground, and she wrapped her hand securely around it.
The creature stepped towards her, its talons stepping lightly on the mud. Before it could get any closer, she swung the stick out. It collided hard with the creature"s head, but it only knocked the thing over. It lay on its back for a moment, dazed by her attack, and Lily hurried to her feet. It shook its head, then hopped back up on its feet.
"I don"t want to hurt you," Lily said, holding the stick out in front of her. "So please, go away. Don"t make me hit you again."
The creature sized her up, staying out of the range her stick, and then it lowered its head and let out a horrible squawk. Lily wanted to cover her ears, but she needed to stay vigilant against the horrible little monster. She shook the stick at the thing, hoping to shut it up, but then she heard the flurry of wings.
She looked up to see them settling in the branches all around her. This bird-like thing had called all of his friends. About a dozen of them had circled around her, sitting in the trees, their beady eyes glowing red in the moonlight. Some of them hissed at her, flicking their slithering tongues. Worse still, the creature on the ground seemed to be the smallest of them, and it was at least three times the size of a housecat.
"I don"t want to hurt any of you! But I will! So I suggest you all just fly away!" Lily yelled. Her voice quavered a little, but she hoped they were too stupid to pick up on it.
The creature on the ground folded up its wings, then put its hands on the ground so it stood on all fours. It narrowed its eyes, and then leapt at her. She swung the stick at it, hitting it in the head again, but before it"d even hit the ground, the other ones flew from the tree at her. She swung the stick erratically over her head, trying to hit as many as she could as she stepped backwards. Claws and beaks stung at her arms and neck.
"Be gone with you!" A voice echoed through the trees behind Lily, followed by a weird crackling sound. Blue sparks flashed around her.
The creatures started to scatter. They all squawked and hissed their disapproval, but they didn"t seem willing to fight it. A few of them lingered, hoping they still stood a chance at getting a piece of Lily, and blue sparks snapped out again.
Finally, they all flew away, their tails flapping angrily behind them, and Lily turned around to see her savior.
At first, Lily could only see the dark brown cloak that covered her, and the slender arm holding a twisted rod. Lily had seen one before when she had been snooping in her step-mother Scelestus"s things but she knew a magic wand when she saw one. This one looked far more knotted and less elegant than the one Scelestus possessed, but it had done the trick.
"Thank you," Lily smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. "I don"t know what I would have done if you hadn"t come along."
"You shouldn"t be in the woods," the woman said, the cloak still hiding her face. "You should get home."
"I can"t go home." Lily shook her head.
"I suppose right now, you cannot." The woman sighed resignedly. "Follow me." Without waiting for a response, she turned her back to Lily and walked in the opposite direction.
Deciding it better to not question the only one helping her right now, Lily went after the woman. Lily didn"t say anything as they made their way through the brambles. They pushed through a nasty patch of elderberry bushes, and then Lily could see the soft glow of firelight through windows. A small cottage sat in the middle of the clearing. A thatch roof sat on top, with smoke coming of the stone chimney, and a twisted apple tree grew in front, the only thing in the whole forest with leaves.
"You live here?" Lily gasped. "In the Necrosilvam?"
"It"s quiet," the woman said, as if that answer made sense, and went on to the house.
Lily went through the small wooden door and found the one-room cottage surprisingly cozy. A fire burned brightly in the fireplace, a small black cauldron sitting over it. A wooden table with two chairs sat by the front door, along with a row of cupboards and a wash-basin that served as the kitchen. A bed rested in the corner, much smaller than the one Lily slept on at home. Vials and jars and pouches littered every shelf that lined the walls and every spare inch of the counter. The whole place smelled of her step-mother"s servant Jinn, but she didn"t know exactly what it was.
"Thank you so much for rescuing me," Lily said, shutting the door behind her when she came in.
"What were you doing out there?" The woman slipped off her worn cloak, tossing it absently on her faded bedspread.
She went over to stir the cauldron, keeping her back to Lily. Her long cinnamon hair had been pulled back in a loose braid, but most of it had come loose, falling in a frayed a mess about her head. Her dress was dirty and baggy, looking almost as old as the woman herself.
"I"m not sure exactly." Lily looked down at her hands, touching absently at the scratch on her palm.
"You"re not sure?" The woman finally turned to look at her, surprising Lily with her appearance.
She was younger than Lily had thought, not even as old as her stepmother, and underneath the dirt smudges and tangles of hair, she was quite beautiful. Tall and thin, she had an elegance she had hidden under the cloak. Her features were delicate, and her skin looked smooth and flawless.
"Not exactly, no." Lily shook her head.
"You"re hurt," the woman sighed. She scooped water from the cauldron into a small bowl and grabbed a cloth, then walked over to Lily. "Take off your jacket and sit down, so I can tend to your scratches."
"Thank you," Lily said again and slipped off Lux"s jacket. She meant to set it down somewhere, but the woman"s nose wrinkled in disgust.
"This reeks of brimstone!" the woman snapped and s.n.a.t.c.hed the jacket from Lily. She sniffed it more carefully to be sure. "Where did you get this?"
"I-I didn"t smell anything," Lily stammered, unwilling to tell her about Lux after a reaction like that.
"Of course not. You"re not attuned that sort of thing." She shoved the jacket back at Lily, who took it uncertainly.
Lily held it close to her and breathed it in, but she didn"t smell any brimstone, not that she really knew what that smelled like. All she could smell was the way Lux had smelled, soft and sweet like sandalwood. She breathed in more deeply, and warmth flooded over her.
"Don"t smile like that," the woman said. Lily had unwittingly started grinning at the thought of Lux, and she hurried to erase it. "Whoever gave you that jacket doesn"t deserve a smile like that."
"Sorry," Lily mumbled. The woman gestured for her to sit down, and Lily sat at the table, with the woman sitting across from her.
"The brimstone does explain why you hadn"t already been eaten alive by the charuns." She touched tentatively at Lily"s hand, cleaning her wound of dirt. Lily cringed, expecting it to sting, but the hot water from the cauldron only soothed her pain. "The jacket deterred them until the scent of your blood overrode everything else."
"Charuns?"
"The bird-goblin creatures that attacked you in the forest."
"What does brimstone do to them?" Lily asked.
"Nothing. They just know better than to bother with people who smell like it." She had finished cleaning the cut on Lily"s hand, so she turned her attention to the claw marks on her neck. She tilted Lily"s head, wiping the cloth along her skin, and then studied Lily"s face for a moment. "You live at the palace, don"t you?"
"Yes." Lily tried to look at her, but the woman held her face at an angle. "I mean, I did."
"You"re running away from something?" She lifted her eyes to meet Lily"s, then dropped them instantly.
"No." Lily sighed, unsure of how to explain what happened. She didn"t understand what was going on, and she didn"t want to talk about Lux, not after how the woman had reacted to his jacket. "I mean, yes. Kind of. I never fit in there. So I decided to run away."
"You ventured through the Necrosilvam because you didn"t fit in?" She stopped cleaning Lily"s neck and looked at her with suspicion.
"No. It"s hard to explain." Lily gave up on a proper explanation and squirmed uncomfortably.
"You"re Iris"s daughter, aren"t you?"
"You knew my mother?" Lily"s eyes shot up, and she gaped at the woman, who took her own turn at squirming.
"We were friends for a time," the woman nodded. She pulled absently at the dirty cloth, having sufficiently cleaned Lily"s wounds.
"What"s your name? Maybe I"ve heard of you," Lily said excitedly.
"I doubt your mother spoke of me," she said dryly, then she saw Lily"s expectant gaze and sighed. "My name is Wick."
"Wick?" Lily furrowed her brow, thinking. Her mother had been dead for eleven years, and it"d been so long since anybody even talked about her. "I"m sorry. I don"t remember."
"I think she kept me secret." Wick gave her a wry smile.
"Because you"re a witch?" Lily asked.
"Mainly that, yes," Wick nodded tiredly.
"How did you know my mother?" Lily leaned forward, excited for any drop of information.
"Oh it was so long ago." Wick leaned back in her chair. "I don"t think I even remember anymore."
"Oh please!" Lily begged. "It"s been so long since anybody"s spoken of her! My stepmother has all but banished her name!"
"There"s not much I can say," Wick began, but she relented under Lily"s hopeful gaze. "Iris was very kind and an eternal optimist." Wick stared at the bowl of water, absently running her finger along the brim. "Far too trusting, though. That was her downfall."
"I suspect that will be mine as well." Lily looked down at the jacket in her lap, the one she found herself clinging to regardless of all logic.
"Not if you learn from your mistakes," Wick said. Then sighing, she pushed her chair back and got to her feet. "But it"s getting late. That"s enough talk for tonight. You need your rest for your journey home in the morning."
"But I can"t go home!" Lily insisted.
"We"ll talk about it in the morning."
Wick threw the cloth in with a pile of rags and dumped the bowl back into the cauldron. She told Lily to take the bed, and though she tried to decline, Wick insisted. Lily slipped off her dress and so she only wore her slip. The bed felt lumpy and rough, as if stuffed with straw, but she didn"t complain. She slid underneath the tattered quilt, feeling only relief at having a warm, safe place to lie.
Though her eyelids were already getting heavy, Lily watched as Wick lowered the fire and locked up the cottage. She moved about, straightening things absently. There was no other bed, and Lily didn"t know where she planned on sleeping. She meant to ask her, but found herself asking something else entirely.
"How did you know I was my mother"s daughter?" Lily asked, suppressing a yawn.
"You look just like her." Wick looked over at her. "Now get some rest."
Lily pulled the covers more securely around her, feeling warmth at the implied compliment, and drifted off to sleep.
4.
The Lord didn"t notice his daughter was missing until the morning, and that was actually more than Scelestus had hoped for. She had put a spell on the ballroom last night to keep everyone from noticing Lily slipping out with Lux, and it had worked too well.
The ball lasted far longer than it should have because everyone was having such a good time, including the Lord. When it finally ended, it was so late, and he was so exhausted that he immediately went to sleep, without checking on his beloved child.
He slept in late, feeling hung over from her spell, and he might not have noticed Lily"s absence until the afternoon if one of the maids hadn"t gone in to fetch her for breakfast. The staff were mostly leftovers from Iris"s reign as Lady of the house, and they cared too much for Lily. Scelestus had tried firing them all on several occasions, but the Lord was far too loyal.
Still, Scelestus knew she should be grateful for the time she had. Based on what Valefor had said and Lux"s appearance, Lux seemed to be the right man for the job. He had to have Lily out of the Lord"s range by now. Really, anything on the other side of the Necrosilvam was beyond his grasp anymore, and that was only a few hours" ride.
Scelestus no longer shared a bed chamber with her husband and hadn"t since their first year of marriage. She could hardly stand being in the same room as him anymore, but it would look strange if she stayed away during a crisis like this.
After a maid nervously came into Scelestus"s room, telling her of the events, she had thrown on her dressing gown and rushed to the Lord"s chambers. She smeared her makeup first to look like she had been crying. It"d be impossible for her to muster real tears over that infernal child.
On the other hand, her husband was beside himself. His room had been torn apart, as if stripping the linens from his four-poster bed would bring his daughter back. His bedroom windows were cracked, letting the cool morning air seep in, but they had been that way for a while. The whole palace had fallen into a state of disrepair, but of course, he didn"t notice that.
He spent the entire morning dispatching men to search for Lily and trying to contact anyone who had been at the ball. n.o.body remembered seeing her or Lux, but n.o.body could seem to remember anything except the spectacular dancing.
Scelestus felt some pride in knowing that she still had it. When Lux lumbered across the dance floor like a drunken idiot, she thought for sure he"d leave an imprint, but her spell was even more powerful than she"d thought.
When the Lord had sent the last of his men away, leaving the two of them alone in his bed chamber, Scelestus realized sourly that she"d have to do something. He sat on the edge of his bed, his silk robe tattered around the edges. His graying hair stood up in manic tufts, and he looked older than ever before.
Scelestus stood by a window, staring out at the fog rolling in, and trying to make herself look as sad and concerned as the situation called for.
"Did I do something?" he asked wearily.
"Whatever do you mean, darling?" Her voice sounded syrupy, and she hoped it had just the right amount of concern in it. She pulled herself away from the window and walked over to where her husband sat on the bed.
"Did I do something bad to be cursed like this?" His red-lined eyes stared up her, filled with despair. "First my wife, then my daughter. Why is everyone I care about taken from me?"